Taking a good trophy picture

[lead Foot]

Hi folks;
Anyone have any tips on taking a good trophy photo. Here's two of mine ~ one good the other not so good. The first one was a hoot. I am sitting in a hole about two feet deep and the pig is sitting on a tuft of woody weeds. This pig is only about 75 kgs live weight. It was shot with a LEE 7/8 oz slug @ 1550fps ~ one shot at about 25'. The next is not so good. This pig weighs in at over 100kgs live weight. He was caught napping under a tree. The picture tells the story.
Lead foot;

[stubshaft]

I do alot of solo hunting and have a problem framing the photo's myself. I carry a small hand held tripod that I can set up to take the photo's. I try to take the picture with the animal broadside. This helps to give it a size comparison using my body as the standard or prop up the gun to show the relative size. Both hogs in the photos look to be good size but the twig in front of the hogs on the lefts tusk hides the tusks true size. Since I use a digital camera I can just preview the shots and keep taking them until I get one or a couple I like

[TDC]

Ha Ha....

We do the same thing here... With animals we sit as far behind them as possible to make them looks as big as we can... works well with fish too. That top pig looks twice as big as the bottom one but apparently he isn't. He's got some nasty looking tusks on him too. Great pictures..

Is that an over and under Biakal rifle you're using in the top picture?

Looks like you have some great pig hunting in Auz.....

[lead Foot]

We are all guilty of exaggerating the size of the fish we just caught:bigsmyl2:
The gun is a boito U/O ~ strong as an ox.
Lead foot;

[waksupi]

My technique usually involves having the camera balanced on a rock or stump. It is also perched at an angle. Having stray grass or twigs in front of the lens is common. I also have a habit of cutting off my head.

[beanflip]

heres a nice trophy

[TDC]

WOW.... Beanflip!

This one appears to be for real....:D

I zoomed the picture up and it's a real "granddaddy." The very gray muzzle makes this one about 100 years old (in dog years)...

I hunted with a state game biologist and another well know taxidermist for many years. Apparently, horn growth like that occurs with a combination of age, available minerals in their browse as well as genetics to make it happen. Many deer go through a predictable pattern of horn growth then revert to smaller horns at the end of their natural life span. After some bucks revert, occasionally, but very rarely, they grow one more spectacular set of horns the last year(s) of their life. This may have been one of those.

The number of points can also be caused by small injuries that occur when the animal is very early "in the velvet." We always wanted to test that theory by capturing a mature buck early in the velvet, make small but blood causing cuts in its growing horns and keep track of the results...

There remains much speculation that some weird multi-point bucks got that way when their growing horns became caught up in barbed wire or some kind of sharp material. This buck may have been a combination of all the influences mentioned...

Did you shoot this one, Beanflip .... or do you know any more info about it?? Was this a Whitetail taken in Washington State or elsewhere?

Sorry about the temporary hijack guys. Inquiring minds just need to know...:-)

[Boz330]

When I first started guiding, the outfitter gave us a binder with articles on different aspects of the trade and one was on taking pictures of the clients kill. What I remember was lay on the ground and take the picture looking up or uphill. Pose the client as far behind the animal as possible and a few other things that I have forgotten. A camera was mandatory equipment, and if it was a record book animal, he was to be notified so he could take video before the animal was even gutted. One guide was actually fired for dressing and capping an extremely high up trophy and not taking ANY pictures.

Bob

[outdoorfan]

Jim is a pro at this:

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/414434/1

[lead Foot]

Wow ~ thanks Outdoorfan good advice there. We should start to see better photo's now.:drinks:
Lead foot;

[jameslovesjammie]

Here's a good article from LRH:

http://www.longrangehunting.com/articles/photograph-big-game-trophy-1.php